Pages

Thursday, 2 July 2015

Are you brave enough to read this book?

“You could go off and play all
day where Floyd lived. There was a field for racing and chasing games, which
were his favourite. And up the hill there was the tree with a tyre, which was
his other favourite. The only place you weren’t allowed to go was down in the
valley behind the houses…”

…because that’s where the
Bugaboo lives.

Where the Bugaboo Lives is a fun, fresh “interactive adventure”, where YOUR choices shape
the story. The first choice to make is whether you’re brave enough to read
about the dreaded Bugaboo in the first place; warning: if you decide to read
on, “you might not go to sleep ever again.”

If you’re not too scared to keep reading, you’ll follow Floyd and his sister Ruby as they stumble upon the valley behind the houses. Soon,
they come to a fork in the path. Here is where you, the reader, make your first
choice:

“And you can choose. If you
want Floyd and Ruby to go uphill… then
turn the page. If you want them to go downhill… then turn to page 14.”

The choices YOU make throughout
the book decide which weird and wonderful
monsters Floyd and Ruby will meet. Sean Taylor has created larger-than-life creatures, including a “long-nosed
prickle beast” and a “freaky flibbertigibbet”, brought to booming life by
Neal Layton’s chaotic and colourful illustrations.

There are over ten different
possible routes to take in the book, so you’ll want to read it again and again.
How will Floyd and Ruby get passed the “sour-face troll” or the “cool ghoul”?
And if they do, what are they going to do when they meet the Bugaboo?

Not only is this book an
absolute treat for the eyes and the imagination, but for the ears too. Sean
Taylor’s wonderful Jabberwocky- and
Dahl-like language begs to be read aloud:

“If I touch this super-twang
elastic, you’ll be pinged into a net. If I toggle this nozzle-pumper, a
whizz-whirring scoop-you-up will sweep you off your feet. And if I whojamaflick
this whojamaflip, you’ll drop like stones into a trap-hole that nobody can
see!”

As well as all this, a lot of
the joy of Where the Bugaboo Lives
comes from Floyd and Ruby’s interactions as they experience the adventure
together. This is the perfect book for families to read together, to see
whether you agree on which path to take (and find out if your dad is actually a
great big scaredy pants!)